Arnotts Celebrates 175 Years

It’s one of the most iconic buildings in the city and houses some of the best Irish and international brands. This month, the store is celebrating this milestone with a series of unique activities.

There is a Victorian inspired Afternoon Tea experience, limited edition commemorative products from a pop-up ‘1843 store’ and a special exhibition which will tell the story of Arnotts and of Ireland, since 1843.

This exhibition is capturing the evolution of the store and Ireland over time and how it has been part of the fabric of Irish life over the past 175 years.

Their windows have been transformed into a story book telling various stories through the ages, including changes in the building, the Arnotts logo, fashion trends and the landscape.

Limited Edition products

As part of the celebrations, Arnotts have commissioned well known Irish illustrator Conor Merriman to create a master illustration that includes the store front and street scape to celebrate the 175 years milestone. His artwork will on limited edition commemorative mugs and teapots available to buy in the pop up Arnotts 1843 store and his illustrations will also be used in the Arnotts windows and on visuals throughout the store.

Other limited edition products includes a limited edition luxury scented candle created by Rathbornes, the world’s oldest candle company, founded in Dublin. While, multi-award winning jeweller Chupi Sweetman created a bespoke limited edition ‘Your North Star’ necklace in her signature style. The piece includes a blue sparkling sapphire set in a gold disc, celebrating the collaboration of the two brands.

Collaborations

Collaborations will also be taking place with other Irish brands in Arnotts including retro prints of Dublin city centre from Jando, a bespoke Duffy’s notebook, a commemorative pack of blue socks from Happy Socks and a Limited Edition blue Irish Fairy Door. Irish artist Julia Gash will be developing a tote bag, mug and accessories pouch for the occasion. For the food lovers, Butlers Chocolate will also be introducing a limited edition celebratory box of chocolates, while Irish chocolate brand Bellaberry are developing an 80% cocoa commemorative chocolate bar.

Donald McDonald, Arnotts Managing Director said:

We are delighted to celebrate this historic moment in time and we hope that our exhibition will awaken memories for our customers, be it visits to Santa Claus at Arnotts through the generations or days cheering the Dublin team in the Arnotts jersey. We are proud to think that Arnotts is as relevant to our customer today as it was back in 1843, thanks to our continuous evolution and we are very much looking forward to building the next chapter in our story with the high level of service that our customers enjoy.

Take a trip down memory lane with these past images from Arnotts. The first picture is a queue to see the famous model Twiggy when she appeared in the department store in the 60’s:

Keep up to date on things happening in Arnotts through their social media pages Twitter: @ArnottsDublin and Facebook: @arnottsdublin or using #Arnotts175